NRA EVP and CEO Doug Hamlin Involved in Gruesome Killing of Cat, Everytown Responds

Recently-Appointed NRA Chief Pleaded No Contest to Animal Cruelty Over Incident in Which Cat was Tortured and Killed, According to Court Documents

Student Who First Reported the Incident is Now a Moms Demand Action Volunteer

NEW YORK – NRA Executive Vice President and CEO Doug Hamlin was the subject of an expose in the Guardian this week, which found contemporaneous news reports indicating Hamlin pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of animal cruelty in the cruel 1979 killing of his fraternity’s cat at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. 

“Heartlessness must be in the job description to run the NRA,” said Nick Suplina, Senior Vice President for Law and Policy at Everytown for Gun Safety, to the Guardian in response. “This revelation shows that the NRA has failed to turn the page on its scandal-plagued leaders and its doom spiral continues with Hamlin at the helm.”

Shelagh Abbs Winter, who was named in a media report as the student who brought the incident to authorities at the time, is now a Moms Demand Action volunteer. When approached by the Guardian for comment, she noted of Hamlin, “Once a creep, always a creep.” 

Here’s what you need to know:

• On January 19, 1980, the Detroit Free Press reported that “five former University of Michigan fraternity members have pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of killing the fraternity’s house cat.” Reportedly, the five had “chopped off the cat’s paws, hung it from a tree, then set it on fire.” A “Douglas Hamlin of Grosse Pointe Woods, president of the Ann Arbor chapter of Alpha Delta Phi” was one of the five charged under an Ann Arbor city ordinance. 

• On January 24, 1980, the Detroit Free Press reported that all five suspects were “expelled from the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity.”

• On April 22, 1980, the Associated Press reported that all five defendants were sentenced to 200 hours of community service work and a $360 fine. In March 1980, the judge in the case, S.J. Elden, reportedly called the crime “an unconscionable and heinous act” that was “inexcusable under any circumstances” and bemoaned the “cover-up” that ensued. In particular, the judge reportedly “chastised Hamlin for his role in the crime, and said Hamlin, as the fraternity’s leader, could have prevented the incident from occurring.”

• The April 1980 Associated Press article reported that the cat’s remains were found by fraternity cook Earl Carl, who the fraternity “subsequently fired.” Carl filed a $300,000 civil suit in the Washtenaw County, Michigan Circuit Court against the five defendants as well as the fraternity for emotional distress and breach of contract.

• Despite his clear involvement, Doug Hamlin downplayed the allegations in his response this week. “I do not in any way condone the actions that took place more than 44 years ago. I took responsibility for this regrettable incident as chapter president although I wasn’t directly involved,” he said.

On May 20, 2024, Doug Hamlin was elected by the NRA’s board of directors to be the organization’s next Executive Vice President, a position formerly held by longtime NRA leader Wayne LaPierre. LaPierre resigned in January 2024, on the eve of the group’s trial in New York, which centered on allegations by New York Attorney General Letitia James that NRA leaders improperly diverted millions of dollars from the non-profit to benefit executives. For the 10 years prior to Hamlin’s election to lead the NRA, he served as the Executive Director of the NRA’s publishing division. 

Hamlin’s election to Executive Vice President was somewhat unexpected – the slated officer to take LaPierre’s place, as put forth by the NRA’s Nominating Committee, was Ronnie Barrett of Barrett Firearms. That said, Hamlin had been previously floated by LaPierre himself as a potential successor. In a 2021 deposition, LaPierre listed Hamlin as one of a list “of good people in this organization that I’m sure the board would look at” to replace him. The NRA Board of Directors vote between Barrett and Hamlin, taken just a few months ago, was reportedly decided by only 4 votes. It is unclear if these revelations about Hamlin’s past will cause the Board to reconsider Hamlin’s continued leadership at the NRA.